All Forum Posts by: Rusty Thompson

The only thing I know about Kelso is that there cops are pretty strict about speeding on the highway @ 2am. 350$ lesson right there. That being said I understand your pain when it comes to investing in the Vancouver , Portland ares. i helped a buddy run numbers on a duplex in Vancouver and they just didn't work. I think investing in Kelso would probably work. It is going to be important to run the numbers but @Brandon Turner invests in Aberdeen and is successful and its a lot more in the middle of no where then Kelso. Make sure to read The Ultimate Beginners Guide if you haven't. Lots of good stuff

Might consider doing it yourself if the bid comes back to high. I rented one for 200$ and it was one of the funnest afternoons I've had in a long time. Kind of like playing with your tonka trucks in the sand box

funny

Welcome to the forum @William Roberts . I see your from Great Falls. I was actually born there, grew up in Anaconda. But I currently live in Oregon.

Just out of curiosity. Why are you considering investing so far away from Montana. From what I know about RE it is still pretty depressed there. Maybe it has turned around and I just don't know. Is there not a strong Rental Market?

If you plan on investing so far away, I would recommend you find a partner in the area. Someone who knows the local market and can point you in the right direction.

As far as what to do. Have you considered trying to buy low cost houses in high price areas. Rehabbing and renting them. It is my strategy & it works really well. You end up with forced equity, higher rents, low turnover & reduced maintenance since you did all that work upfront. The only problem with this system is it requires knowledge of the area.

If I had a choice of the two strategies above I would choose cheaper homes in good blue collar areas. 50/50 partnership with a local RE investor that will manage them for you and will have a vested interest in making sure the properties are kept up. 

@Cierra Seay It is unfortunate. When I stated investing I had to drop a couple agents because they kept trying to force me to make offers on things that I could see where not good deals. It took me a while to develop my MLS offer strategy but it works great.

I think it is awesome that you are focusing on the investing side of Real Estate Agent representation. I'm curious what your track record has been submitting a bunch of low ball offers on property to see if any stick? What $$ amount properties are you offering one & what commission are collecting per deal. The reason I ask, is if I was a RE agent and I was making 100's of offers for a client, I would ask for a higher commission to make up for the extra work.

I've had that happen as well.... But they always make sure to collect their referral fee.

@Roy N. 

 You are right. Usually the people buying modular homes are expecting a higher quality building than your standard stick built property. But at that point we are not comparing apples to apples. If you are purely looking at cost per sq.ft. modular doesn't make sense. But neither do Spec homes. When you graduate into the custom market modular makes sense. 

One way you can offset the costs of modular is find a builder in a lower cost are than where you live. The reduction in labor costs will make up for the increased transportation and building costs. Kind of like buying from china.

That is a good question. Though I don't flip, I do rehab. I honestly don't do much exterior work in the winter unless I have to. Especially painting. As the temperature drops it takes longer and longer for it to dry & it makes more of a mess. Coordinating painters is gong to depend a lot on the weather. It could take a couple months until a day worth painting on comes around. Though i can def. see a advantage to getting a couple flips finished during the winter months so they will be ready for the buying season. I can say the buying pretty much dries up around the end of October and doesn't pick back up until the end of march/april. that has been my experience from watching the MLS over the last 3 years.

Maybe you could get all other work finished during the winter, then list the property un-painted and offer the option of the buyer choosing their paint colors. Just a thought

I had a lot of trouble in my area getting offers accepted when I started. It takes some time to figure out how to get a offer accepted, it took some serious thinking about peoples motivations to figure out the system. 

First off, have you considered that your agent might be the equivalent of the stinky kid. Unbeknownst to you, maybe your agent is the one no one wants to work with. At the end of the day RE is a relationships business. If your agent has burnt bridges in the past it could be affecting you offers.

EM is part of the offer contract, it is not sent in with the offer, but sent in after the offer.

Proof of funds is usually sent with the offer. 

A buyers agent is usually useless. The MLS is searchable by anyone in my area. Not all of the background information is available, but I can still view everything on the MLS. If that is not the case use zillow, redfin, loopnet or similar. Maybe you should find out if the same is true for you. Then you can assemble your own buying list & not feel committed to one agent. It also helps you avoid things like your agent being swayed towards certain properties because they were offered a bonus commision.

By using the sellers agent you are essentially offering them a 3% bonus commission on closing of the deal. It is pretty strong motivation to at least get your offer in front of the person making decisions.

@Pete T. You might still be confusing Modular and Mobile. You can't  usually tell the difference between modular and site built when they are finished. Mobiles (manufactured) are usually double wide or triple wide & reside in manufactured home parks.